each entry are organized alphabetically by the city in which the museum is
located; museum names are generally abbreviated but can be decoded by
referring to the "Museum Abbreviations" included in the end matter of this
volume. Dates and signatures are indicated for paintings that have been
published as bearing them. If a work is documented, that information is also
indicated whenever possible. For each entry a selected bibliography provides
a key to contemporary sources as well as to later and recent scholarship with
an emphasis on publications in English. Full citations appear in the
Bibliography.

Several criteria determined the selection of artists: their importance to the
history of art, their contributions to national, regional, or civic culture; the
amount of scholarship available on them; and, of course, the inherent quality
of their oeuvre. Thus, the discussions and evaluations of the artists in this
dictionary represent the aggregate of numerous opinions, including my own.
Many artists have been included because their work is universally judged to
be important to the developments of the seventeenth century; others have
been added because, in my opinion or that of other scholars, they have been
overlooked and deserve more recognition.

Naturally, no such survey can be comprehensive, nor will readers necessarily
be satisfied with the amount of space given to each individual, or with the
choice of artists themselves. I do hope that enough information has been
provided to render this book useful. The reader will notice that Italian and
Dutch painters far outnumber the others. This is a result of historical
circumstances as well as scholarly traditions that focused on a limited
number of painters and/or regions. Still, I hope the present volume helps
elucidate the artistic richness and diversity this century has to offer through
its discussion of the activities of many artists in different regions. Since many
of them traveled fairly widely and worked in various centers, their nationality
is sometimes difficult to establish. Each artist is entered in the main body
of this volume in alphabetical order by last name, with the most commonly
affixed nationality noted. Alternative spellings are sometimes noted and
nicknames indicated. For convenience, artists are also roughly grouped by
nationality (Dutch, English, Flemish, French, Italian, and Spanish) in an
appendix.

Among this book's shortcomings is its lack of illustrations. This is a much-
regretted aspect of this publication necessitated by constraints of space and
cost. The numerous bibliographical citations can guide the reader who is
enticed to seek illustrations of the artists' works.

Moreover, work on this project is not complete. As this volume goes to
press, I am engaged on a second volume that outlines the major

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